Of Sorcery and Space Travel
by Snailicorn
Summary: While collecting herbs for Gaius one day, Merlin meets a strange man called the Doctor. He enters the Doctor's strange blue machine and sees a lot of incredible things, but as we all know, the Doctor's not very good at getting people back to when they're supposed to be.


_I've had this idea floating around in my head for ages, but I just finally decided that I need to write more. Hope you like it!_

It wasn't fun, collecting herbs for Gaius, but it was certainly better than being trapped in that bloody castle all day with the King of all Prats. King Arthur's foul mood lately was not caused by a single, large event, but rather several small annoyances that built up over time; the usual stresses of being King, not catching anything on the past several hunting trips, losing sparring matches with his knights. But of course, Arthur was quick to become angry, and when Arthur was angry, Merlin was the one who had to deal with it.

And so, even though it was tedious, time-consuming work, Merlin had eagerly accepted Gaius's task. Arthur himself had been. . . . less than pleased to find out that Merlin wouldn't be completing his usual chores for the day, but he had managed to wait until they were no longer in Gaius's presence before he had started arguing with Merlin about the latter's supposed laziness. Even Arthur couldn't deny that Gaius's services were important, however, so he had grudgingly allowed Merlin to go collect the herbs Gaius needed, but the King's annoyed glare promised a heated argument the moment Merlin returned to the castle.

The plant Merlin was sent to gather was found near a river, located a couple hours' walk from Camelot. The warlock supposed he probably could have borrowed a horse but in all honesty, he wasn't exactly in a hurry to get back. He admitted that maybe there was something to those accusations of his laziness, but he saved Arthur and Camelot from supernatural creatures every other week with no thanks. He _deserved _a little time off.

After filling the basket Gaius had given him about one-fourth of the way with the herbs, Merlin sighed when he felt a rock in his right boot. Deciding that he'd earned a few moments of rest anyway, he found a nice shady tree on the edge of the river, sat down by it, and dumped the pebble out. He made a mental note not to get too relaxed and fall asleep there, as it had been raining nonstop until just that morning and the waters were high and moving dangerously quickly. Merlin held the shoe, turning it over and over, searching for holes that might have allowed the rock into it, and as he did, he listened to all the sounds of nature that he didn't get to enjoy when he was within Camelot's walls.

The birds were chirping, the water was rushing past, the wind was blowing through the trees, and-

_Vworp, vworp, vworp . . . ._

Well, that was a rather strange noise. Alarmed, Merlin hopped to his feet, knocking the basket onto its side. There was no way this noise was something found in nature- this was the product of someone or something. "Hello?" he called, when the sound stopped. He heard leaves crunching as they were stepped on and mentally prepared himself for a fight.

"Ah, yes, hello!" the stranger's voice called back to him, as the man stepped into view. "Sorry, bit lost. Well, more than a bit, really."

Merlin supposed the man was probably around Arthur's age, or perhaps slightly older. His accent was vaguely similar to that of the people of Camelot, but his clothing was unlike anything Merlin had ever seen before (what was that bizarre thing tied around his neck?), which made him wonder where exactly the man was from.

Judging from the man's raised eyebrow, figured the man was assessing him in the same way. Grinning suddenly, the man excitedly extended his hand and introduced himself. "Hello. I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor? Like a physician," Merlin questioned, "Are you on your way to see Gaius?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I know anyone by that name, no."

". . . Never mind." Merlin shook his head and shook the Doctor's hand. "I'm Merlin."

Strangely, the Doctor seemed surprised to hear Merlin's name. And then he said something that shocked Merlin to his bones:

"What, like the wizard?"

Stunned speechless, Merlin hardly felt his right boot fall from his hands. It rolled down the embankment, plopped into the river with a small splash, and was carried away by the current.

Merlin opened his mouth a few times before managing to get a sound out. "Y-you… How- I mean, what? Where . . . Where did you hear that? Who told you that?"

The Doctor stared at him curiously for a moment, before his face adopted a knowing expression. "Oh. _Oh. _I'll bet you'rea wizard yourself, aren't you, Merlin?"

Merlin was frozen, his eyes glued to the Doctor, horrified.

The Doctor grinned more brightly than before. "You _are_! Oh, this is _Christmas._ I've only been here a few minutes and this is already so much better than every other time I've gotten lost!"

"I- I just," Merlin struggled, "This is ridiculous, you can't possibly know- And what is a 'Christmas' I don't even- _Who are you?"_

"I've already told you who I am," the Doctor laughed.

Merlin's brain replayed every moment in which he'd used magic in the past few months, trying to figure out when and where this man could have discovered his secret. Legs weak, he stumbled back against the tree he'd been sitting under.

The Doctor reached for him, looking a bit alarmed. "Careful there. Wouldn't want you going in after your boot."

Merlin glanced at the water and decided to sit down where he was. The Doctor, still bizarrely cheerful, hopped over to him and took a seat a bit _too_ close to Merlin for the warlock's comfort. "Now," the man began, "there are a few things I'm getting from your reaction. One, that you are in fact a wizard, _the _wizard Merlin- this is so cool!" The Doctor did a sort of dance of excitement where he sat. "And two, that you apparently don't want people to know about it. Why is that?" He leaned in closely, studying Merlin's face, before sitting back, with a serious look on his face. "The expression on your face, Merlin, I've seen it before- you're truly terrified right now. You're fearing for your life. Have you been threatened?"

Merlin managed a weak, unhinged laugh and held his head in his hands. "Every day of my life . . ." What exactly was this man planning to do to him? Was this some sort of torture?

The Doctor seemed disturbed by his response. "Everyday? Hmm. I'm betting you're a pretty powerful wizard, if you're really the same Merlin that I've heard of. And if you're powerful, than you could handle one or two people threatening you- so it's a lot of people, then? A town, a city, a country, even. Well, we've got to do something about it-"

"Stop, just- you have no idea what you're talking about," Merlin interrupted. Maybe this man didn't want him dead after all, but what he was about to say was treasonous and would probably end up _causing_ Merlin's death if he actually acted on those thoughts. "I don't know if you're from a place where sorcery is legal and accepted, but it isn't like that here. And I- I have my own destiny, and there is a certain way things are going to pan out. I can't have you intervening and messing things up."

At the same time, Merlin wondered if he really believed his own words. Would all this destiny nonsense pay off someday? The dragon promised him it would, and he certainly hoped so. But Arthur was more against magic than ever since it claimed his father's life. Merlin cringed at the memory of how everything had gone so wrong.

The Doctor looked frustrated, but sighed in resignation. "Well, I can't help you if you don't want to be helped."

They sat in silence for a few painfully long moments, Merlin still trying to understand what exactly was happening, until the Doctor finally spoke.

"Is your king called Arthur?"

"King Arthur Pendragon, yes. Um, why?"

"No reason. I've just heard some things and I'm wondering if they're true. Do you happen to spend a lot of time with him?"

Merlin wasn't sure where all of this was coming from, but he didn't see any reason not to answer. "I suppose so, I am his personal manservant, after all."

"His servant?" the Doctor scoffed. Merlin wasn't sure if he should be offended or if he should also scoff in agreement. "I'll bet you're his friend, at least? You fight by his side, don't you?"

"How exactly do you know all of this?" With each question, Merlin was feeling more and more uncomfortable. Why did this man know so much about him?

"Well, there's another place called Earth where they tell stories about you, but you're not real there, which kind of makes sense, since I seem to have stumbled into another dimension. When I get lost, I get _very _lost."

"Another . . .dimension?" Merlin wasn't even sure what that meant.

"Yes, yes, you're confused, of course you are, but you haven't answered my question yet."

Merlin held his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes. "I don't know. I don't know if we're friends. Everyone says 'oh, Merlin, it must be so great to be favored by the king, he must be so wonderful, I just want to bask in his kingly presence!' But really, he doesn't like me all _that _much. I think he's just confused because I don't give him respect unless he's done something to deserve it and no one had ever treated him like that before. I was the only one who didn't put him on a pedestal just for existing. But of course I'm not the only one who does that now."

"Yeah," the Doctor replied, "but that doesn't mean he doesn't see you as a friend. It sounds to me like you were probably the first one to treat him like a person instead of a title. Think about it from his perspective," he paused. "Do people really say they want to 'bask in his kingly presence?'"

Merlin laughed, "I overheard a seamstress say that last week and I haven't been able to look at the poor girl without laughing since then."

They lapsed into another silence, but this time it was more comfortable. After a few minutes, the Doctor stood up, brushing off his pants, and extended his hand to Merlin. Merlin allowed the Doctor to help him up, but when the Doctor suddenly started off into the woods, dragging Merlin along behind him, the warlock started to become nervous again. "Where are we going?!"

"I've only just met you, but I think I've gotten to the bottom of the real problem you're having! You're just feeling a bit unappreciated by this kingly pal of yours. I can't really do anything about that, sorry, but what I can do is try and cheer you up a bit!"

"Doctor- I don't want to go running around the forest! I've only got one boot on!"

"Well, that'll teach you not to drop your boots into rivers!"

They found themselves in front of a large, rectangular . . . _thing _that was an unnatural shade of blue. It stuck out vibrantly against the background of trees as the sky started to grow darker. "Listen, I don't understand what's going on here, but I haven't even collected half as many herbs as I was supposed to and I need to head back to Camelot soon."

The Doctor grinned and replied, "Not to worry, I can get you back to whenever you want."

The Doctor threw open the doors of the blue thing and hurried inside. Merlin carefully followed, gazing in wonder up at its ceilings. It was much, much larger on the inside- impossibly larger. Merlin found himself stumbling about, bumping into things as his brain tried to make sense of what he was seeing. On his bootless foot, he felt the cold metal of the floor, similar to a sword in feel but vastly different in appearance. He felt the Doctor grab his elbow and guide him to a seat. The Doctor instructed him to sit still and not touch anything, and since Merlin had no idea what any of the things in this place were, he decided to obey the Doctor's orders.

"Since you're clearly amazed enough just by the TARDIS herself, we'll just stop and look out the window at some cool stuff, hmm? Wouldn't want to overload your little medieval human brain and give you a silly little medieval heart attack."

Merlin thought he should probably be offended, but his mind was too busy being shocked to allow it, so he simply nodded. He watched the Doctor twirling around, pulling levers and pushing buttons so quickly that Merlin wondered if the man was simply toying with random things that served no real purpose. Merlin panicked a bit when the TARDIS started shaking violently and making terrifying noises, but the Doctor assured him that this happened all the time. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad thing, but he calmed down nonetheless.

He waited for the Doctor to call him over to the window before getting up. Wobbling slightly, he made his way over and peeked out, only to discover that, somehow, the outside was not the forest they had just been in, but rather some sort of icy realm with not a soul in sight. There were huge, crystalline flowers scattered across the snowy landscape. Only seconds after Merlin arrived at the window, tiny ice crystals started to form on the outside of it. Close up, he could see that they were different than the snowflakes he'd seen on Earth; these ones formed in tiny circles rather than pointed designs. As soon as Merlin turned away from the window, he was directed back to a chair and the Doctor spun around the controls again. In the course of a few hours, the Doctor showed Merlin impossible, beautiful things unlike anything he had ever seen in his life. He was mystified. "What is this magic? Surely you must be a powerful sorcerer, too."

The Doctor laughed. "No, no, just an alien, but you probably don't know what that is."

After a while of this "space-and-time travel," as the Doctor called it, he asked if Merlin was ready to go back home. Truthfully, Merlin thought he could spend his entire life like this, looking out at all these amazing things. But he supposed all good things had to come to an end eventually, and the Doctor had more than fulfilled his promise to cheer Merlin up.

The TARDIS did its routine violent shaking and light flickering, and they were back. The Doctor lead Merlin out and, even though the adventure had been amazing, Merlin was glad to be back on a more solid ground, albeit slightly disoriented.

Something was slightly off, however.

The river water was much lower and didn't flow nearly as fast as it had been. Looking to the sky, Merlin saw that it was early morning; the sun probably hadn't been in the sky for more than an hour. "We can't have been gone for an entire night, surely?" he asked, turning around to face the Doctor.

The Doctor was staring intently at the devices on his wrist, glancing back to Merlin several times before clearing his throat. "It seems I've made some minor miscalculations and got the timing a bit wrong. Not to worry, we're only off by about . . . a month or so. . . "

"A month?! What do you mean-"

The sounds of leaves crunching hushed them both, and Merlin spun around to face the area where the sound was coming from. After a few, tense seconds, Gwaine stepped out into the open. Merlin sighed in relief and turned back towards the Doctor to introduce him to the knight.

Neither the Doctor nor his blue box were anywhere to be found.

Merlin slowly turned back around, incredibly confused, to match Gwaine's eyes- and see a look of equal confusion in them. But Gwaine's confusion gave way to something else, and he rushed forward without warning, pulling Merlin into a suffocating embrace. "Gods, Merlin, is it really you?! I just- I can't believe it!"

"Um," Merlin mumbled into Gwaine's chest, trying in vain to free himself from his friend's grasp.

"Where in the world have you _been_?" Apparently realizing Merlin couldn't answer his question while being strangled, the knight released him and took a step back, staring at him with a mixture of impatience and pure joy. "We thought for sure we had lost you!"

"Lost me? It really has been a month, then?! The Doctor said we've missed a month, but I thought, surely not, we've only been gone a few hours!" Merlin ran a hand through his hair and looked back again. Still no sign of the Doctor.

" 'Doctor . . .'" Gwaine repeated, looking at Merlin with an unreadable expression. Merlin opened his mouth to speak, but just then a voice echoed through the leaves, calling Gwaine's name.

"On my way!" the knight called back, allowing a smile to creep back onto his face. He grabbed Merlin by the wrist and dragged him along, sparing a quick glance back in the direction that Merlin had been looking towards, his eyes searching for something. Apparently giving up on that, Gwaine shook his head and broke into a run, forcing Merlin to run as well. The knight laughed and called back to Merlin, "This is the first time we've been able to get Arthur out of Camelot to go hunting since you disappeared. We've not caught anything all day, but no one's going to be able to frown when they find out you're alive!" Gwaine let out a particularly loud cackle then added, "I bet the princess will piss his frilly bloomers when he lays eyes on you! Can't wait to get you back home. Oh, this is _Christmas_!"

Merlin dug his heels into the dirt (which was not a bright idea, considering he only had one boot on) until Gwaine allowed himself to be pulled to a stop. "Why will no one explain to me what a Christmas is." Merlin had the slightest feeling that there was something strange going on here. Suspicious, Merlin narrowed his eyes at Gwaine. "Wait, where did _you_ hear that from?"

Gwaine grinned. "We're going to need to have some interesting conversations once we're back in Camelot and everyone's done fussing over you, Merlin, but right now we need to get you to the princess. I can't wait to see the look on his face!" With that, he roughly pulled Merlin along behind him, stopping just at the edge of a clearing. He pushed Merlin behind him and shouted, "PRINCESS! . . . Sorry, that probably scared all the animals around here away, but never mind that! I've got you something much better!"

A second after the final word left Gwaine's mouth, Merlin found himself flung forward forcefully, into the clearing, stopping just a few yards away from Arthur. For an extremely long moment, the king stared down at Merlin from his horse.

Then, in the span of a single second, Arthur was off of the horse and an inch away from Merlin. He grabbed Merlin's shoulders painfully tightly, shaking him slightly before hugging him so hard that Merlin thought his organs might be permanently damaged from it. Merlin thought he was probably supposed to return the embrace, but his arms were pinned to his sides. "Merlin, by the gods! I thought I'd never see you again!" Arthur pushed himself away long enough for Merlin to see a enormous grin on his face (and. . . were those tears in his eyes?), then pulled Merlin into another embrace, lifting Merlin a few inches off of the ground this time.

This was all still terribly confusing to Merlin. The Doctor had told him that they'd accidentally skipped a month, and all evidence pointed to this being true, but everything was happening too quickly for Merlin's brain to process. He desperately needed some clarification from someone.

"I'm not really sure what's going on here. Er, what happened exactly? I mean, from your perspective."

Arthur frowned. "What do you mean 'what happened?' Merlin, you've been gone for nearly a month! We thought you were dead!" Merlin tilted his head to the side, waiting for more details. "The morning after you disappeared, I found Gaius as he was pacing all over the castle. He told me that you hadn't come home the night before, so I sent out Gwaine and few others to look for you." Arthur's face became grim and he swallowed before proceeding. "They found your boot caught on a branch in the river and your basket on the edge of the water. We thought for sure you were drowned."

"Oh," was all Merlin could say in return.

Arthur glanced around and for the first time, Merlin noticed the other three people watching the spectacle. Suddenly he was feeling rather uneasy. Arthur blinked several times before clearing his throat. "Y-you know, since you're such a clumsy idiot, Merlin." Merlin almost smiled at the familiar name-calling. Having regained his composure, Arthur continued, "Well out with it then. Where were you all this time?"

Merlin froze. He couldn't exactly explain what really happened to them, could he? The Doctor had told him that what he'd experienced was not a product of magic, but if it wasn't magic, what was it? And anyway, even if it really wasn't magic, the second Merlin got the explanation out, Arthur would start throwing the word "sorcery" around and there'd be a manhunt for the Doctor. That strange man had seemingly vanished and Merlin knew that his bizarre machine could travel faster than any man or animal alive, but there was no guarantee that the Doctor was far enough away that he wouldn't be captured.

Merlin knew he wasn't a great liar, but he had learned over the years that the best lies had an element of truth to them. "Uh, I just . . . I was here and then I wasn't. And you're telling me I've been gone for a month but it's not been more than a few hours for me." He put on his most confused expression, which wasn't difficult because he _was _confused, just not so much about these specific things. He was more confused about who the Doctor was, how that machine of his could do what it did, and why Arthur was only capable of giving Merlin hugs after thinking Merlin was dead for a while. But Merlin's mostly genuine confusion made this lie one of his better ones, and the warlock even managed to get the suspicion off of himself by swaying a bit and dramatically touching his head. "S-sorry, I don't really remember," he added. That part was completely untrue (how could he ever forget what the Doctor had shown him?), but it was sincere-sounding enough that Arthur and the others accepted it. Mumbling something about Merlin needing to be looked over by Gaius, Arthur lead the group back to Camelot, keeping Merlin in his sight the entire time.

It was still possible- probable, even, that someone would say the word "sorcery" and the others would jump onto it. But, Merlin realized, that explanation couldn't cause any real trouble as long as Merlin didn't mention the Doctor. So long as no one knew about him except, apparently, Gwaine, there was no one to accuse of sorcery. As far as anyone else would ever know, Merlin had just had an encounter with a nameless sorcerer who had thankfully not caused any real harm to him, and Merlin had been displaced in time through no fault of his own.

Merlin could not speak of the Doctor to anyone but Gwaine and Gaius, but he held onto the hope that someday, Arthur would accept that supernatural things were not inherently bad, and perhaps one day Merlin could even share the story with him. But for now, Merlin settled for privately wondering about the strange man. He looked to the stars every night, remembering what it had been like to see one up close, and each night after the sunset but before the sky grew completely black, he was reminded of the color of the Doctor's machine and somehow he felt a bit safer.


End file.
